Some thoughts on the closure of BeefJack Magazine

Not an easy decision. We went back and forth on it a few times. But in the end, it was the only sensible choice.

We came into a crowded market and tried to do something a little different. Ultimately, it didn’t quite work out for us, despite our best efforts. But I’m still immensely proud of what we managed to achieve.

For me personally, editing BeefJack Magazine was one of the defining moments of my career. My first long-term professional contract in games editorial, it gave me the opportunity I was craving to develop my skills as a writer, editor and, later, manager.

I spent two-and-a-half years in this role, and it’s now well over a year since I stepped down as editor of BeefJack Magazine. I was really pleased to see how it continued to grow and develop under Jamie and, later, Yuliya. We produced some incredible, insightful content over the years. We gave budding writers a platform to write to a large audience. Though we were never able to reward those writers in the way we would have liked, I hope each of them got what they were looking for our of the experience. I always tried to invest time in writers, to pick out raw talent and help them develop their skills in specific, targeted, tailored ways. I know Jamie and Yuliya, along with a number of other section editors, had the same goals in mind.

With the closure of Magazine, though, come lots of exciting new opportunities – not just for BeefJack, but for those who contributed to the magazine.

The change comes at a time of change for the whole company, in fact, and for me personally. It’s been kind of the case for a few months now, but next month it becomes more official: my new role at BeefJack is heading up BeefJack Promote, our PR and marketing arm. I want to continue from the groundwork we laid with Magazine, fighting to give interesting and creative games the attention they deserve. We’ve had a great deal of success so far and have worked with some incredible studios on campaigns for phenomenal games.

With a renewed focus on Promote we can invest more time, energy and resources into providing even better and more wide-ranging opportunities for indie and creative studios to thrive. And with Studio, our development arm, we’re making a conscious effort to push new and interesting ideas from our team, to invest time in creating them, and to explore new technologies and implementations to make our ideas shine. This is more the area of our game director, Shaun, but I’m really excited to see where things go.

So, then: sad times, but encouraging times also. I wish everyone involved in BeefJack Magazine the very best of luck, and fully intend to keep working with those people where possible. As for me and Shaun, I think I can speak for both of us when I say we’ll keep nudging BeefJack into the place we want to be: a place that celebrates games of all shapes and sizes, and brings to the fore the imaginations of our phenomenal, creative team.